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'We are in survival mode': Coronavirus devastates New Jersey restaurants

Most of his family — his wife, two brothers, sister-in-law and daughter — depend on his five-year-old restaurant for their livelihood. Before life in New Jersey started shutting down because of the coronavirus, Bushi would serve anywhere from 50 meals on weekdays to 115 meals on weekends.

"I didn't even make $200 today," said Bushi, who is 38 and a native of Albania. "I still have everything, all my expenses — rent, power, gas — everything but business. I have no money. I don't know what we're going to eat if it goes like this."

The restaurant industry, which has always operated on slim profit margins, is today on life support, and it's being joined in the metaphorical intensive care unit by a slew of ancillary businesses that depend on it for their financial health: food purveyors that supply provisions, florists that provide fresh flowers, linen companies that rent and wash tablecloths, online sites through which we make our reservations.

"We have seen a 90% loss in revenue in the last three days," said Ben Del Coro, vice president of sales for Fossil Farms in Boonton, one of New Jersey's primary sources of exotic meats, with a 15,000-square-foot distribution center and a retail store. "It stings. I've been in this business for 23 years and I've never seen anything like this." Fossil Farms has laid off 25% of its staff.

"The people you put out of work are putting someone else out of work," said Marilyn Schlossbach, chairwoman of the New Jersey Restaurant and Hospitality Association and chef/owner of Langosta Lounge in Asbury Park. Schlossbach closed her restaurant and let go of 40 staffers and, she said, "took 200 vendors off my payable list."

Restaurants are the hub of social networking around the world. Life's major events — birthdays, anniversaries, promotions, engagements — are celebrated in restaurants. It's where we go to catch up with friends, gather with family, date a romantic possibility, even conduct business.

We need them not only as places to socialize, connect and enjoy good food and drink: They help drive our economy. In New Jersey, it is an $18 billion industry, employing 350,000 people, or 8% of the state's workforce. Thousands and thousands more workers earn their livings working in the myriad businesses that are connected to the restaurant world — event planners, liquor and wine distributors, lawyers, bankers, bakers, fishmongers, exterminators, publicists.

"It’s not just restaurants that are suffering," said Karen Schloss Diaz, head of Diaz Schloss Communications, a public relations firm based in Montclair that focuses on the food and beverage business sector. "My income level is not great, but it’s been healthy. I have nothing coming in now."

Felina in Ridgewood today(Photo: Courtesy Felina)

Anthony Bucco, chef and partner of contemporary Italian restaurant Felina in Ridgewood, is also no longer making any money. "We decided to cut our losses and shut the doors," said Bucco, who lives in Matawan and is the father of three. "It took two years to build Felina and 2½ hours to break it down."

His restaurant employed 36 people; all are out of work. "This is about as horrible as anything I've ever seen," he said.

Leia Gaccione, chef and owner of Central + Main American Eatery in Madison and South + Pine American Eatery in Morristown, can barely sleep. "I have invested 20 years in this industry and every penny I have to my name," she said. "Many restaurants are not going to ever open after this. This is the scariest thing that has happened in our lifetime."

Chef/owner Leia Gaccione or South + Pine in Morristown and Central + Main in Madison had to lay off staff and can't sleep.(Photo: Courtesy Leia Gaccione)

Like many chefs — more than 50,000 — she has signed a Change.org petition calling for an aid package that she hopes will help save her restaurant during this crisis. The petition asks legislators to, among other things, provide emergency unemployment benefits to all workers who have been laid off, waive the payroll tax and endorse rent and loan abatement for workers.

"If we don't get help, I don't know what's going to happen," said Gaccione, still shaken from having to lay off 50 people. "My eyes are swollen from the amount of tears that have come out of them for the past three days," she said. She is keeping South + Pine open for takeout and delivery.

Mike Jurusz, chef and owner of Chef Mike’s ABG, a 35-year-old fine-dining American restaurant in South Seaside Park, has been crying too. "Every day," he said.

Jurusz, who bought the restaurant 20 years ago, had to lay off most of his staff, around 20 people. "Most of the people have been with me for 20 years," he said. "This is my family."

To try to survive, he has turned his destination restaurant into a takeout spot, replacing "frou-frou" items such as sesame-crusted Ahi tuna and pan-seared rack of lamb with "family-style" dishes like shrimp penne vodka.

"We are in survival mode," he said.

Last week he posted a moving video on his Facebook page (Chef's Mike ABG) asking people for help. Jurusz said he has always "given back," supporting charities, doing benefits and even co-founding the charity A Need We Feed, which provides food for 1,800 veterans and homeless people four times a year. Last year, he said, he gave $70,000 in gift cards to charities. "I never say no," he said. "I'm a giver. I've helped others for so long. Now I'm saying, 'Hey, what about throwing me a bone.' I don't want to be homeless."

Jurusz knows well that restaurants aren't the only businesses devastated by the coronavirus crisis. "Most of my sales people [purveyors] are down 50 to 60 percent," he said.

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Grant Street Cafe in Dumont, NJ now offers curbside pick up as a way to keep staff and customers safe from the Coronavirus. Bartender William Taylor stacks up toilet paper which is given free with any purchase of twenty dollars or more on Wednesday March 18, 2020. Anne-Marie Caruso/NorthJersey.com - USA TODAY NETWORK

Grant Street Cafe in Dumont, NJ now offers curbside pick up as a way to keep staff and customers safe from the Coronavirus. Bartender Ben Salkind delivers an order with a free roll of toilet paper on Wednesday March 18, 2020. Anne-Marie Caruso/NorthJersey.com - USA TODAY NETWORK

Grant Street Cafe in Dumont, NJ now offers curbside pick up as a way to keep staff and customers safe from the Coronavirus. Chris DeLaura delivers food via rollerblades to a customer on Wednesday March 18, 2020. Anne-Marie Caruso/NorthJersey.com - USA TODAY NETWORK

Grant Street Cafe in Dumont, NJ now offers curbside pick up as a way to keep staff and customers safe from the Coronavirus. Chris DeLaura delivers food and a free roll of toilet paper via rollerblades to Brayden Sanford, 7 from Waldwick, on Wednesday March 18, 2020. Anne-Marie Caruso/NorthJersey.com - USA TODAY NETWORK

Grant Street Cafe in Dumont, NJ now offers curbside pick up as a way to keep staff and customers safe from the Coronavirus. Bartender Ben Salkind walks out an order with a free roll of toilet paper on Wednesday March 18, 2020. Anne-Marie Caruso/NorthJersey.com - USA TODAY NETWORK

Grant Street Cafe in Dumont, NJ now offers curbside pick up as a way to keep staff and customers safe from the Coronavirus. In addition to food they also offer growlers on Wednesday March 18, 2020. Anne-Marie Caruso/NorthJersey.com - USA TODAY NETWORK

Grant Street Cafe in Dumont, NJ now offers curbside pick up as a way to keep staff and customers safe from the Coronavirus. Margaret Carullo and her dog Daisy pick up their order on Wednesday March 18, 2020. Anne-Marie Caruso/NorthJersey.com - USA TODAY NETWORK

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Tyler Craggs of Point Pleasant is one of them. A salesman for Driscoll Foods, a food distribution company based in Wayne that depends on restaurants for 75% of its revenue, said he saw his sales drop from $50,000 to $10,000 a week. "I'm beyond nervous," he said.

Not only is he finding it profoundly difficult to sell products to restaurants, but he is having trouble getting products.

"Production facilities have to shut down because of the virus," he said. "Or are working with fewer staff members. As a result, prices are increasing. Chicken breast prices, he said, increased 17 cents, from $1.30/pound to $1.47 — an increase that financially strapped restaurants are finding hard to swallow.

Bruce Botchman is CEO of Peekskill, New York-based White Plains Linens, his family's 80-year-old, $50 million company. Until a week ago, the company supplied for rent every week 130,000 pieces of linen — from aprons to chef's coats and napkins to tablecloths — to restaurants throughout the New York metropolitan area, including New Jersey. And it employed 550 people. Today White Plains Linen has 35 employees: a skeleton staff to provide hotels with room service linens, kitchen towels and a few other items.

"We're closing everything down," he said, and pivoting the business from renting linens to restaurants to selling directly to consumers. "We're starting an online store," he said.

But the future, he said, will look very different. "Twenty percent of my customers will be gone when this is over," he said. "Some of my competitors will be gone. This is not a happy time. But we will get through it."

Paramus resident Lance Appelbaum, owner of Fossil Farms, said his company is also pivoting "hard and fast." It is changing its business model from primarily being a meat wholesaler serving the restaurant industry to a retail store serving the public.

"Everything is retail right now. We have a warehouse full of sustainable meat, groceries, prepared meals." In a few days, the company hopes to be able to offer local delivery through DoorDash.

"The past 72 hours have been the most difficult in our careers," he said. "There is no playbook to go by. We have been through 9/11, the 2008 financial crisis, Hurricane Sandy. This is all three disasters wrapped into one."